Mexico’s President Says Ruling Party Should Change Name

08/24/18 New York Times

Photo via Reuters

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto said the long-time ruling party should consider changing its name after its July 1 election defeat.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party has held the presidency for all but 12 of the last 88 years. But the party known as the PRI came third in presidential elections and will be the fifth-largest force in the lower house of Congress.

Pena Nieto told the newspaper La Jornada in an interview published Friday that the PRI should change “its name and essence, because if you keep the names it won’t work.”

He said the elections showed “the erosion and rejection of the PRI as a brand.”

Read more…

Head of Mexico’s ruling party resigns after record loss

07/16/2018 Reuters

The head of Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) stood down on Monday after the party’s record defeat in the July 1 presidential election, reducing the long-dominant force of Mexican politics to a fraction of its former strength.

Battered by corruption scandals, surging violence and poor economic growth, the centrist PRI was trounced by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a veteran leftist and staunch critic of the establishment who has pledged a major shakeup of politics.

The PRI, which has ruled Mexico for 77 of the last 89 years, secured just 16.4 percent of the vote and saw its representation in Congress cut by about three-quarters.

Read more…

RIP PRI? Mexico’s ruling party in ‘intensive care’ after drubbing

07/04/2018 Reuters

Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was one of the most successful brands in 20th-century politics, but a record defeat in Sunday’s presidential election has left its future hanging in the balance.

Pushed into third place with its worst-ever showing, the PRI candidate Jose Antonio Meade won just over 16 percent of the vote, less than a third of that garnered by the winner, veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, preliminary results show.

The wipeout swept the country, shattering the centrist PRI in many traditional strongholds, including Atlacomulco, the hometown of the party’s outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto, about 55 miles (89 km) from Mexico City.

“I never thought we could end up so low, and finish with such poor results,” said Enrique Jackson, a PRI lawmaker and former Senate leader. “It’s really upsetting.”

Read more…

Mexican ruling party candidate Meade concedes election defeat, wishes Lopez Obrador well

07/01/2018 Reuters

Mexican ruling party candidate Jose Antonio Meade conceded he had lost the presidential election on Sunday, saying his rival, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, bore the responsibility of the next government and wishing him well.

Read more…

Ruling party’s Meade banking on upset in Mexico election

06/26/18 The Washington Post

For much of the past century, it was hard to get elected to any office in Mexico — even to get a government job — without being a staunch member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held an iron grip on power as administrations came and went.

Now the party itself has turned to an outsider as its candidate for president: Jose Antonio Meade, a longtime technocrat who until recently wasn’t even a member of the party.

Weighed down by an unpopular administration due to corruption scandals, rising violence, a sluggish economy and frustration with President Enrique Pena Nieto, the party known as the PRI apparently figured one of its own would be too toxic to voters and a “citizen candidate” would fare better.

In the race to Sunday’s election, things haven’t quite been turning out that way.

Read more…

Mexico ruling party says rules aimed at stopping rise of left

8/14/2017 Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Rules adopted by Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party allowing it to form coalitions and non-members to run for president were necessary to stop leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from winning office next year, the PRI’s president said.

The rules adopted over the weekend give the once-dominant party, known as PRI, a better chance of clinging to power in next July’s presidential election, where veteran leftist Lopez Obrador is an early favorite among voters tired of graft, scandals, violence and a tepid economy.

Read more…

Mexico president’s rating hits new low after Trump victory

11/20/16 Reuters

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s approval rating has slumped to a new low since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency last week, in part due to his invitation of the real estate tycoon to Mexico during the campaign, a poll showed on Sunday.

The survey by polling firm Buendia & Laredo for newspaper El Universal said approval of Pena Nieto’s performance had fallen to 25 percent from 29 percent in July, hurt by discontent about the economy, rising violence and failure to battle corruption.

Pena Nieto’s six-year term concludes at the end of November 2018, and opinion polls show his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) faces an uphill battle to retain power after the next presidential election, scheduled for July 2018.

Read more…

Mexico’s governing party ousts fugitive state governor accused of links to organized crime

10/26/16 Business Insider

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) expelled an outgoing state governor from its ranks on Tuesday, saying the official violated party rules as head of the Gulf state of Veracruz.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant last week for Javier Duarte over his alleged involvement in organized crime and money laundering.

Read more…

Mexico: Arrest warrant for missing Veracruz governor

10/26/16 Al Jazeera 

The Mexican authorities are seeking to arrest a former governor who has disappeared as he faces charges of organised crime and money laundering, officials said.Javier Duarte has not been seen for days after he resigned as governor of the crime-plagued eastern state of Veracruz last week.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for him last week and the country’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has expelled Duarte, saying the official violated party rules as head of the state. Duarte failed to attend a hearing of the party’s justice committee on Tuesday and his whereabouts are not known. “The expulsion of Javier Duarte de Ochoa was decided because it has been proved … that he systematically violated the party rules and ethics codes,” the party said in a statement.

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Radio Formula last week that officials do not know where Duarte is but believe he is in the country because immigration authorities have no record of him departing.

Read more…

Mexico’s ruling party just totally failed at being cool

10/13/16 The Washington Post 
It was an erstwhile attempt at self-expression in a party known for protocol and staid formalities. A member of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) posted a defiant rant on Facebook — along with an image of a bearded hipster with thick glasses — listing the challenges of being young and belonging to an organization whose stalwarts are lampooned as dinosaurs.

“Being a young priista (PRI militant) is no easy thing. It’s a fight on twenty fronts,” Rodrigo Escalante wrote Oct. 9 on his Facebook page.

Read more…